I forgot that Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt star in a remake of the Eighties TV show, The Fall Guy, but a trailer dropped yesterday, and now I am SUPER into this movie.
Gosling stars as Colt, a stunt man working on a film directed by his ex, played by Emily Blunt. He’s doubling for a movie star named Tom Ryder, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but when Tom disappears, Colt must investigate to save his girl’s film, and he gets pulled into some kind of underworld drama. It looks like just the right combination of action, comedy, and a dash of romance, and I’m getting a little bit of a The Nice Guys vibe, too.
The Gos is riding high on his Ken success, but I still remember The Gray Man. If I have any reservations at all about The Fall Guy, it’s that The Gray Man suuuuucks. But The Gray Man comes from directing duo Joe and Anthony Russo, and while they are responsible for some of Marvel’s most beloved and successful films, their post-Marvel oeuvre has been incredibly cynical dreck designed to be easy to sell in global markets. The Fall Guy, meanwhile, comes from director David Leitch, of John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Deadpool 2 fame. And it’s written by Drew Pearce, who also wrote Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, arguably the best of the M:I movies (I am a Ghost Protocol girl myself, but I am also not dying on this hill, the 2010s M:I movies are all bangers). So there’s a more trustworthy pedigree here.
You know what isn’t quite clicking for me, though? Emily Blunt. Maybe I’m still mad about Pain Hustlers, but I’m not feeling much chemistry with The Gos. What I am getting is mostly just Ryan Gosling’s natural wattage and ability to generate heat with a doorknob. I have generally liked Blunt as an actress—she’s great in Oppenheimer, even in an underserved role—but she keeps being miscast recently. Maybe her performance will play better in the full movie. I hope so, because The Fall Guy just rocketed up my 2024 most anticipated list.
Attached - Ryan Gosling getting lunch last week in LA.
